The Super Bowl-bound Broncos' name celebrates the city's Wild West heritage. The Denver Art Museum also honors it with its western American art collection. More than one dozen works in the collection feature the fierce animal from which the team derived its name.
We took a look in the galleries on level seven of the North Building and level two of the Hamilton Building to see what's on view right now. This slideshow highlights five captivating broncho depictions in the collection.
How can a museum exhibition tell a sweeping story of 300 years of social, historic, and artistic change? In Passport to Paris, we relied on three pretty amazing groups of art objects to do a lot of the heavy lifting, but art doesn’t always speak on its own. To help us tell the story, we turned to artists, critics, and even King Louis XIV. Here are ten quotes that you’ll find on the walls and labels in the Passport to Paris galleries.
We asked our staff to share their 2014 resolutions, aspirations, and inspirations. Check out the video below. As always, we want to hear what you’re up to. Share your inspirations and goals for 2014 using #DAMinspiration on Facebook and Twitter.
In March 2013, the Denver Art Museum received a challenge grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in New York to establish an endowment for the textile conservator in the museum’s conservation department. This prestigious award also included funds to create the first-ever fellowship in textile art conservation at the DAM.
One recent morning, I woke up and started scrolling down my Twitter feed (don't judge) and ran across four posts in a row that were titled something like "top 10 things to...", "5 ways to...", and "the 20 most popular," and I felt annoyed. Why? Because I clicked on them all. There's just something so alluring about the promise of knowing everything you could possibly want to know in just a few little bits of info, right?
In part one of this series, we discussed assessing what needed to be done to conserve Big Sweep by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.
The exhibitions department is responsible for preparing the museum’s many galleries for each new exhibit, as well as many smaller gallery rotations. Our usual tasks include repairing gallery walls, removing platforms, pedestals, graphic panels, and labels; lighting, painting, and fabrication. For larger exhibitions, such as the recent Nick Cave: Sojourn exhibit, we often work with several subcontractors to carry out the designer’s plans.
Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one." —Brad Paisley
Country music words to live by. To help you “write a good one” I surveyed some of the Denver Art Museum staff to find out what they are most excited about in the coming year. Even though 2013 is a mere day behind us, the DAM team is already running full-speed ahead and working on amazing exhibitions and projects. Mark your calendar for these not-to-be-missed moments.
When I first moved to Denver nearly four years ago, one of the first things I wanted to see was the notable Spanish Colonial art collections of the Denver Art Museum. I will not forget the moment I first walked into the galleries because I was blown away by the brightly colored series of portraits of Inca rulers that covered the first wall of the gallery. When I heard they would be reinstalled for the Fashion Fusion exhibition the memories flooded back. Today, I work at the DAM and get to be inspired by these works on any given day.
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The first time I saw the Lumière brothers’ films I was mesmerized. Silent, flickering black and white, and each less than a minute long, they give quick glimpses into moments of everyday life in France at the end of the nineteenth century. The people in them are at once both faraway and familiar. Men sport bowler hats and vests; women wear exaggerated, puffy sleeves and decorative hats. But as the films play on, it becomes clear that not much has changed in the nearly 120 years since these movies were made.
Exhibitions by their nature are ephemeral. Consider the DAM’s recent exhibition Red, White, and Bold: Masterworks of Navajo Design, 1840-1870 in which classic period blankets came from institutions and private collections from around Colorado and California to be included in the show. It is unlikely that all of those works will ever come together for a show again. However, the impact of an exhibition can be far reaching.
Alfred Sisley was born and lived in France for most of his life, but inherited British nationality from his father and never received French citizenship. Although he was raised in Paris, he lived in the outskirts of the city for most of his life, finally settling near Fontainebleau in 1880.
Key piece to look for: Seine at Bougival (La Seine à Bougival), 1873